Pranking the Pranksters
by N. Forest
Summary: Elladan pulls a prank to get back at his brothers for their prank. He never thinks that it could have far reaching consequences that will affect his entire family. Written for April Teitho challenge, "Pranks". AU in that Legolas and Estel are friends.


**Title: **Pranking the Pranksters

**Author: **N_Forest

**Rating:** K

**Author's Note: **Thanks to Xandra for betaing!

"Where is he?"

"Shush!"

Elrohir clapped a hand over his younger brother's mouth and whispered into his ear, "Estel, if you want to have even a slight chance at tricking Elladan, we've got to be quiet. He'll hear us!" But in his eyes, playful lights were dancing.

The two brothers returned to their silent observation of the door to their brother's room. Balanced on top of the nearly closed down was a very full bucket of water. Once the door opened, the bucket would fall and soak the person who walked through. It was a rather simple prank to play, but it had been Estel's idea and Elrohir had been happy to encourage and aid him. Especially because the prank wasn't directed at him.

Elrohir could hardly wait for his brother. He'd always been the more hot-headed of the pair, letting Elladan function as the voice of reality and coolness in his life. And since the twins were nearly never separated, it usually succeeded. But this was not a time for cooler heads to prevail. This was a time to soak elves that had decided reading in their rooms was more fun than playing with their younger brothers.

"Elladan!" He called out loudly, making the noise of footsteps on the floor with his boots. "Elladan, I need to speak with you." He gave Estel a secret smile and waited for his brother to open the door. Then finally, they'd get to see their prank in action.

There was a grumble from behind the door and the creaking of the bed and then the floor as Elladan got up. "A moment. I am rather busy today, I really don't see what could be so important that-"

That moment was when Elladan pushed the door open and the bucket came crashing down to cover him with water. Only it didn't fall harmlessly to the side and splash him as the two pranksters had hoped. It smashed directly onto Elladan's head and then to the floor, making a thudding noise as the metal rings on the buckets rattled in their holdings.

Elladan crumbled into the pile of water around his feet. His eyes were closed and his breathing slow, as if he were a human in a deep sleep. But he was not. Elrohir rushed to his brother's side, sinking to his knees next to him. His hands flew frantically over his brother, but he did not know what to do.

Estel got out of his hiding spot and ran over to his elven brothers. "Elrohir? What happened to him?" Estel peered at the elf. "Is he sleeping? Why are his eyes closed?" He asked, for he knew that elves slept with their eyes open unless they were very hurt. "There are no orcs to hurt him here, are there?" For a moment his expression grew fearful, orcs were his worst fear.

"Estel, it is all right." Elrohir drew his crying brother onto his lap. "He is hurt. The bucket banged his head too hard. We must find Ada, immediately!" He scooped the boy into a tight embrace and hurried to his feet, then down the hall to his father's study. His brother's condition was beginning to worry him. Normally such a hit wouldn't have taken him so long to awaken from.

Elrohir knocked on his father's study door and then burst into the room. "Ada, please come. Elladan is hurt! I didn't mean for anything bad to happen."

Elrond looked up from the papers he was going over. Elrohir's behaviour was rather surprising. He had been quite certain that his sons were staying in Rivendell for the day and it was not easy for one of the elves to get hurt badly enough for Elrohir to react in such a way in such a safe place.

"Of course ion nîn. Lead the way." Elrond followed his son down the hall. His eyes spotted the lump on the floor in within a few paces his eyesight had assured him that it was Elladan. He gathered speed and sprinted down the hall, stopping and kneeling next to his son.

The Elf-Lord felt his son's neck cautiously. There was a large lump rising on the upper left side of his head and such a thing might indicate damage to his spine or neck. But his sensitive fingers found no such thing and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Elrohir, I am going to bring Elladan into his room. Please bring me the herbs used for headaches and the slave for bruises. Estel, bring a bowl of the clean water and some clothes. Get someone to clean up this mess." He indicated the water on the floor and the upended bucket lying near Elladan's feet.

Both brothers hurried to their assigned tasks, eager to see their brother wake again

Elrond scooped his son into his arms and carried him into his room, lying him on the bed. "When are you ever going to learn?" He questioned. "Pranks and orcs and tree climbing. I'll have to ask Elrohir exactly what happened. Although I do have a feeling that it is somehow related to that bucket."

Quickly and carefully, Elrond divested Elladan of his wet clothes and put a simple nightshirt on him, gently towelling the elf's hair dry after he was underneath his blankets. Once his other two sons had returned, he placed a small pot over Elladan's hearth and boiled water for tea.

Cleaning and then applying slave to the bump was no big deal. Elrond left the cup of headache tea to cool and instructed the pranksters to watch their brother and give him the tea when he awoke. "I will speak to you later," was all he said in reference to the prank, and both of them fidgeted while he looked at them, not looking forward to the conversation at all.

It took another thirty minutes for Elladan to open his eyes. He spotted Elrohir and Estel sitting on one side of his bed and the mug of tea on the other. He breathed deeply, putting together what had happened. A prank obviously, he'd been hit by something hard on the head, and there had been water, lots of it.

He grinned mischievously to himself. Elladan had a plan for getting revenge on his brothers. They'd been pranking him far too often of late. That was about to change.

The elf sat up in bed, looking about.

"Elladan, you're awake!" Estel cried and threw himself towards his older brother. Elrohir caught him before he could land on the elf.

"Estel, his head must ache a great deal. Give him some time to pull himself together." Then Elrohir turned to his brother. "How do you feel Elladan?"

Elladan frowned. "Who is Elladan? Where am I? Who am I?" He asked, looking about with a confused expression on his face. "What exactly is going on?" For a moment he nearly burst out laughing at his brothers' expressions, but he managed to quell the emotional outburst and continued looking puzzledly at the elf and child looking worriedly at him.

Estel's eyes widened horribly. "Elladan, it is us! Estel and Elrohir. You are in Rivendell. Can you not see that?" He gestured to the room around them and out the large window that was letting in huge amounts of natural light and providing a beautiful view of the plants, trees and life that Rivendell is famous for.

Elrohir leaned closer to his brother. "Elladan, are you all right?"

Elladan appeared to become flustered. "I don't know who Elladan is! I've never seen either of you before in my life!" He exclaimed before wincing and putting a hand to his temple. "I've just woken up and my head hurts something awful and now the two of you are raging at me and making it impossible for me to feel any better."

Instantly the expression of Elrohir's face changed to one of sympathy and care. "Oh please, I'd forgotten about that." He pulled the drapes closed and Elladan sighed in relief as the light stopped assaulting his eyes. "Here Elladan." Elrohir tried to hand his brother the mug of tea their father had made. "It's head ache brew. It'll make your head stop hurting."

Elladan knew what the foul smelling draft would do and drained it quickly, shaking his head afterwards in a fruitless attempt to rid his mouth of the test. But already he could feel the pain in his head evaporating and he breathed yet another sigh of relief as the pounding in his head stopped.

"Estel, go get Ada." Elrohir ordered his younger brother. After all, if he went to fetch Elrond and Elladan suffered from a fit of madness or needed help, Elrohir was the best equipped to help him. Not the young human child.

But Estel was a young human child so he crossed to the door and stepped into the hall before yelling, "Ada! Elladan needs you! He woke up and doesn't remember who I am!"

There was the soft noise of leather on wooden floors as Elrond ran down the hall to the elder son's room and burst in. "Elrohir, Elladan, Estel. What exactly is going on here?" He demanded, none of his children seemed to have the ability to leave him in peace.

"Hello." Elladan said from his upright position on the bed. "Who are you? And who exactly am I?" He asked, hoping that his father would soon leave the room. It was one thing to prank his brothers and it was quite another to continue that prank in front of his father who was a very busy Elven-Lord and one of the greatest healers in all of Middle-Earth.

Elrond carefully ran a hand over the bandage that covered Elladan's bump. "Oh Elladan." He looked directly as his son. "Your name is Elladan Elrondion. Just in case you were wondering. I'm going to feel your head now. See if there's any damage that might have affected your memories."

Elladan bent his head forward for his father, but he knew the elf wasn't going to find anything wrong with him. After all, the tea, of which he was still suffering the after-taste of, had cleared out his headache and he was ready to return to his normal life. But that wasn't an option right now as his father felt his head, seriously looking for injures and abnormalities.

Elrond finally pulled his hands away. "The only thing wrong with your head is the bump from where the metal bucket hit you. I can't do anything until the swelling goes down."

"What!" Elrohir jumped up. "You mean he's going to be like this longer? I want him back, back now!"

Elladan looked about the room, trying to look confused. He wanted to make a comment about something, anything. But the fact that his rather imposing father had been fooled by his trick was unsettling and he wanted an easy way out of his predicament.

Elrond tapped the toe of his shoe against the floor for a moment. "There is a brew that may help him. However, it will take some time to prepare. A few days, perhaps a week. Elrohir, just keep him in bed and see that he recovers. Sleep is the best thing. The memories may unlock themselves on their own."

Elladan nearly breathed an audible sigh of relief. If worst came to worst, he could wait for the brew and then pretend that it had helped him get back all his memories. The only problem was that he would have to wait for so long and the chances of slipping up were much too high. It was only suppose to be a prank, not involve his father and get his brothers so very worried.

Elrohir came back his brother's bed side and sat down heavily on the chair. Estel leaned forward and gently touched Elladan's hand. "Don't worry. I'll show you everything here! It's really fun. I hope you're fun too. 'Cause sometimes Elladan is too serious and doesn't let me have any fun."

_I wish I could laugh._ Elladan thought to himself. "Thank you very much. I'm afraid I didn't catch your name. And who exactly are you? My son?"

Estel giggled. "No silly! I'm Estel Elrondion, I'm your brother!" He exclaimed, as if such a fact were obvious to everyone and anyone.

Elladan nodded slowly, his mind whirling. "I'm rather tired." He began. _After all, if they don't know I've really got my memories, there's no reason for me to act like I normally would. And right now, sleep sounds good._

Elrohir and Estel stood up. "We'll leave you to your rest then." Elrohir said rather formally, he didn't know how to act around his brother. Finally, he put a hand on his shoulder gently. "Get well soon." He smiled tightly and left.

Elladan slumped down in his bed. Pretending to not be himself was much harder than he'd originally thought it was going to be. He squirmed under the blankets until he was comfortable and stared up at the ceiling in silence. Memories didn't return easily and if he was normal once he woke up, they'd suspect something. The tea wouldn't be ready for another week either. _I need to find some way to get out of this without losing face!_

Thoughts spun through Elladan's head and he slowly passed into the realms of sleep, his mind quieting and his eyes glazing over and closing slightly. The bump on his head was rather painful and that was affecting him more than he'd originally admitted. His breathing deepened and once again his mind started to work again.

But this time it was a dream. A dream where he walked the halls of Rivendell, looking desperately for his twin, for Estel or his Ada. For everyone and anyone. Yet there was no one. He could not remember his way around and the halls he'd been navigating for his entire life appeared to change before his very eyes, as if they existed only to confuse him.

When Elladan awoke again, Lord Elrond was sitting next to his bed. He gave his son another cup of the tea to relieve the lasting pain in his head and applied more salve before changed the dressing and checking around his head for any bruising. There still wasn't any.

Elladan slept after that. Escaping family difficulties and helping himself recover with one simple action. And sleeping all day wasn't something he minded. Eventually it did get boring, but now the break was nice to have.

The ailing elf was next disturbed from his rest by a jostling of the bed. Someone was squirming around beside him, musing the covers and making his head roll around. It was rather disturbing and not at all fun. He shook his head in an attempt to clean his mind.

"Elladan? Are you awake yet?" Estel asked, looking excitedly at his brother. "Come on Elladan, wake up!"

Elladan groaned. "I'm awake, I'm awake. Not that I want to be." He glared at the young human. "Why do you insist on waking me up so early?"

Estel smiled. "'Cause there's a surprise later today and I can't wait! It's going to be awesome!" He leapt off the bed and proceeded to do a rather disturbing little dance of excitement and happiness around the room.

Elladan shook his head and gave his forehead a gentle rub. There wasn't any pounding or pain left, but at times a rather odd sense filled his head. As if it should have been hurting and it wasn't. He reached up and removed the dressing and bandage, it helped a bit, but not completely.

"What's the surprise Estel?" He asked, not knowing whether he should be dreading or wait in excitement for the time to arrive. It could go either way and with Estel, one could never be sure.

There was a knock on the door and Estel practically threw himself across the room. "He's here! Here he is!" He shirked in excitement as he opened the door.

A tall, blond and majestic looking elf walked through the door, looking rather unnerved by the enthusiastic greeting Estel was giving him with both arms wrapped around the much taller elf's waist as he couldn't reach any higher.

"Legolas!" Elladan opened his arms and accepted the hug the Mirkwood prince gave him. "How nice it is to see you again. How have things been in the trees lately? Slay any orcs, spiders perhaps?"

Legolas smiled and shook his head.

Elrohir pushed in beside the blond elf. "You recognize him Elladan? Has you memory returned?"

Elladan stumbled over his tongue for a few minutes, trying to explain. Eventually he gave up and just stared towards the door, avoiding eye contact with the three in the room. At first it worked, then his Ada walked past the door. He caught his son's eye and Elladan could have sworn that the elf had smirked at him and the dilemma he had gotten himself stuck in.


End file.
